Character Expressions

[planktheory]

I was curious as to how many different expressions one would typically see in a solo project or one with a fairly dedicated artist. I would have thought 4 would be a good place to start. Though I know that Scott McCloud in one of his books mentions that there are 6 base emotions, things are either variants or combinations of the six. The six he mentioned were: Anger, Disgust, Fear, Joy, Sadness, and Surprise.

Wondering what has worked for other people.

[monele]

Mmm... Off the top of my head, the base expressions for my characters tend to be...
Neutral, Happy, Sad, Mad/Angry, Huh?, Smile. With "pout" being a frequent 7th for ladies

[Alessio]

neutral
happy
unhappy
embarrassed
+ special move: wink (which is a mosaic combination of blinking and smiling)

[Ignosco]

I'd recommend having a look at Elven Relations or Time's Tear - both of them have unlockable galleries where you can see all of the facial expressions. In terms of numbers, there are several games using only single expression characters, while the two games mentioned above (particularly Elven Relations) have some of the most expressions. Multiple poses for the most part are only used in commercial VN's.

[DaFool]

The six he mentioned were: Anger, Disgust, Fear, Joy, Sadness, and Surprise.

Cool! A guideline, thanks!

For basic VNs, 3 is enough, and it depends on the character:
(Angry, Happy, Sad)
usually. Recently I've used
(Curious, Surprised, Happy)
and even just 2 states...
(Mad, Surprised)
or
(Sarcastic, Smirking).
I can imagine a Tsundere would have
(Disgust, Embarrassed)

Put it this way... in my opinion there are only two expressions that can be used constantly: Joy and Sadness (Happy, Sad)

All the rest are only incidental: Anger, Disgust, Fear, Surprise. You can usually combine them with traits for Joy and Sadness to make caricatures, that's the only way I think you can use them constantly as a trademark behavior of the characters in particular. But otherwise, if it's not in-character to have a certain expression -- for example, a weakling can never be angry for the most part -- then you don't need them and you can save on expressions.

In summary, for my solo projects: 2-3 expressions. I need to really know my characters so I know which expressions determine who they are and I can chuck the rest.

For being a dedicated artist, I've never really worked on projects whose writers really demanded a lot of expressions... 3 is usually enough.

[mikey]

Well, for Time's Tear lordcloudx made slightly more than what was used. Most notably we had "Angry", but it was never used. I tend to use a lot of happy variants and a lot of thinking variants (thinking, worried, unsure, etc...). It depends on the work. Also note that there are several things you can combine, like blush - you can have smiling blush, delighted blush, surprised blush etc,..

But, it's not rocket science. Basically, I'd say the first set is always:
- happy
- sad
- normal
- surprised
- blush

For me, I usually want also:
- thinking
- worried
- giggle (like this smilie ^_^)

I tend to find this basic set useful these regardless of whether I actually use ALL of the expressions - as someone who can't draw on demand it would be extremely inconvenient and inflexible for me to ask for just those expressions that I critically need. Usually it's not that hard for an artist to change expressions and this little extra work helps immensely. Even though it's possible that some of the art is "wasted".

DaFool >> Hmmm, interesting, upon reading your expressions, I realized I very rarely use "Sarcastic", "Disgust" or even "Embarrassed" (I tend to use "blush" instead). It's interesting to think about it.

[papillon]

Summer Schoolgirls had 4 frames for each:

Normal
Happy/Laughing
Sad
and then the fourth depended on the particular girl and what happened in her storyline - could be Scared, Angry, Surprised, Snooty, etc.

In Fatal Hearts it depends a lot on character, some have a lot of poses, some very few. One is just

Happy
Sad

and one goes as far as

Normal
Happy
Sad
Scared
Questioning
Angry
Teasing
Sulking

I prefer to keep 'normal' and 'happy' separate so that you can see when someone is really cheerful or amused.

[PyTom]

For moonlight walks, I had the following series of sprites:

mary_dark_laughing.png
mary_dark_vhappy.png
mary_dark_smiling.png
mary_dark_wistful.png
mary_dark_sad.png
mary_dark_crying.png

mary_dark_confused_smiling.png
mary_dark_confused_wistful.png

"wistful" is basically the neutral emotion they teach you in how-to-draw books. In general, I think characters should be drawn a little happier than neutral, since I think happiness is moé. IMO, it's important to have enough emotions to go up and down a little, to track a character's reaction to a scene. Some of the emotions, like crying, are actually fairly subtle, but I think they add a little depth to a scene.

(MW actually had two color-shifted variants of each emotion... the "dark" and "dawn" variants, which tracked the time of the scene.)

[chronoluminaire]

Yep. For my style of writing, the vital expressions are, in order:
1: Happy
2: Serious/Neutral
3: Surprised - I was surprised at how important this one is, but I find it's vital in conversations of any length to be able to show a character who wasn't expecting what just happened.
4: Angry
I like blushes, so I'll include blushing versions of at least 1 and 4 here.

Next (in the category of "pretty handy but not quite essential") are:
5: Very happy, or alternatively "softly smiling " - a variation of 1 that's either more or less smiling
6: Sad
A blushing version of 2 (a general "embarrassed" expression)

Other expressions might include bored/cynical, crying, or tired - but these will be strictly optional and depend on the character, and on the dedication of the artist. If you have one as productive as SunKitten, be careful not to ask for expressions you aren't certain you'll need, or she'll produce them and then nag you if you don't use them!

[monele]

In general, I think characters should be drawn a little happier than neutral

As you say, neutral should rarely really be neutral. It's even a very important expression because it's the one you see the most and it should, imo, express just what your character is all about.
You can't imagine some emo bishies smiling in his neutral expression. He should be somewhat pouty or as neutral as possible. But a genki loli should have a smile when neutral and be overly joyous when smiling.

[F.I.A]

Hmm, the 6 discussed expressions are pretty much the basic. But yea, for some character, some of the expressions are not necessary. And yea, I am one lazy guy who only make necessary expressions when under demand.

Thuogh, all in all, I am one guy who prefers some body language as well that is included with each expressions.

[Qu-ko]

A bit late, but...

If the character happens to be an extreme personality (extremely boistrous/childish or even, if the situation calls for it, quiet and serious), don't forget that cartoony, simple deformed expressions can be very useful for conveying feelings. Examples like:

(T_T)
Σ(ﾟДﾟ|||)
(>ω<)
(><)
(^▽^)

...are particularly useful in a very "WTF" or "YAY" or even "GRR ARGH" situation.

[Zoideah]

A bit late, but...

If the character happens to be an extreme personality (extremely boistrous/childish or even, if the situation calls for it, quiet and serious), don't forget that cartoony, simple deformed expressions can be very useful for conveying feelings. Examples like:

(T_T)
Σ(ﾟДﾟ|||)
(>ω<)
(><)
(^▽^)

...are particularly useful in a very "WTF" or "YAY" or even "GRR ARGH" situation.

...That's half of my method right there. XD I pick emoticons and design character expressions based on them.